Authored by Terri Wu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

China’s economy is facing its biggest challenge in decades, and the authorities are running out of tools in their toolbox to address the issues, according to experts.

The country’s latest macroeconomic data point to an economy on the verge of deflation.

The June consumer price index was flat year on year and down by 0.2 percent compared with May. The producer price index, which reflects wholesale costs, declined by 5.4 percent compared to June 2022, showing a bigger drop than May’s 4.6 percent.

June’s trade data continued to show a downward trend. The dollar value of China’s exports decreased by over 12 percent year on year, a bigger drop than May’s 7.5 percent. Its imports also declined by nearly 7 percent from June 2022, compared to 4.5 percent in May.

Gary Jefferson, an economics professor at Brandeis University and a specialist in the Chinese economy, said the troubles facing the world’s second-largest economy are multifaceted, including heavy debts in the property sector and local governments, the weakening of return to investments, low household confidence, and geopolitical tensions with the United States and the European Union.

And it’s the result of the regime’s policies over the past 30 to 40 years, he said.

While many have pointed to the massive disruptions brought about by the pandemic and the regime’s zero-COVID policies as the source of China’s current woes, Mr. Jefferson believes that structural issues are likely to blame.

“As evidence of the systematic nature of the problem, it appears that the decline in economic confidence and social confidence are mutually reinforcing,” Mr. Jefferson told The Epoch Times.

“The reluctance to partner and marry and have children likely results in part from and feeds into the economic downturn. Fewer families augur a decline in the demand for larger or upscaled housing units, further contributing to weakness in the property sector, leading to less demand for land leases and local government revenue.”

China is grappling with a declining birth rate despite the regime’s dropping its one-child policy in 2016, and allowing families to have up to three children in recent years. Many couples have refused to have more kids citing the high costs involved.

‘Deepest Difficulty’ Since 1989

“The government is really in sort of the deepest difficulty it’s been in, at least since 1989, June 4th,” he added, referring to the Tiananmen Square massacre of Chinese students seeking democratic reforms and the resulting international isolation. After that, China’s economic growth took three years to get back on track.

While a southern tour by then-Chinese communist leader Deng Xiaoping in 1992 helped reignite economic growth, China is now not in the same situation having significantly developed since then, Mr. Jefferson pointed out.

With decades of savings by Chinese families and enterprises and abundant investment opportunities, economic recovery is not likely to readily happen, he said, adding that authorities are running out of tools in their toolbox to fix the economy.

In response to the 2008 global financial crisis, Chinese authorities released an enormous stimulus package— 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion at the time)—that significantly increased government spending on infrastructure, and debt in the property sector and local government.

Today, the return on physical and human capital investment is low compared to 10 years ago due to the enormous volume of infrastructure investment already undertaken, and the increase in higher education enrollment the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) initiated in 1999, said Mr. Jefferson. China’s youth unemployment rate was over 20 percent in May and June, partly due to the oversupply of college graduates that grew from 1 million to 10 million in two decades.

In his view, a stimulus would require enormous funding from the central and local governments, which would mean even more debt accumulation—and that’s very problematic. And when people have more money, they may choose to bank it or use it to pay off their debts. Therefore, getting more money into people’s hands may not stimulate spending, he added.

The professor gave an analogy of a car speeding along a hill and suddenly facing a cliff. “Often when this happened, there’s been a cliff maybe 50 or 100 feet away that the car could land upon and then resume its journey,” he said.

But in the current circumstances, “more than any other situation in the last 40 years, the distance to the other side of the cliff is substantially greater than that has been, making a safe landing more problematic.”

A key distinction between China and Western economies, according to Mr. Jefferson, is that Western governments have procedural legitimacy from elections and legislative processes, but the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) legitimacy depends entirely on its economic performance. Because of this, “it makes it very, very difficult for the Party to be able to manage a recession or accept a recession,” he added.

“It’s a rather difficult, embarrassing situation for the leadership.”

‘I Don’t See Hope Now’

Mike, 27, works at a polymer additives factory in a city in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province, one of the country’s private sector hubs. Mike spoke to The Epoch Times using an alias for fear of CCP reprisals.

He graduated from college in 2017 with a major in urban underground space engineering. In July 2020, after his two-year contract with a subway project in southern China’s Hunan Province ended, he moved to his current city to join the factory that had just opened. The factory specializes in higher quality products tailored to the overseas market.

In May 2022, a big Western European company didn’t renew its annual order of 15,000 pounds of products due to the geopolitical tensions between China and Europe, he said. Since then, the factory hasn’t been able to secure any replacement orders to make up for this shortfall. It has now stopped production and is selling its inventories.

The business, he said, is looking for ways to adjust the product line to cater to the domestic market, but “securing orders will be very difficult” because demand is low.

Mike’s small factory wasn’t alone. According to him, a nearby auto parts factory has cut 3,000 workers or 30 percent of its workforce. In addition, he said workers at that factory no longer have overtime opportunities, a main source for them to earn above the minimum line to make ends meet.

When Mike first moved to Zhejiang, he thought his life was going somewhere. So he bought an apartment in the city in October 2020. However, the economy took a downturn and the three-year pandemic lockdowns exhausted many, he said.

“I don’t see hope now,” he told The Epoch Times. “Everyone is dealing with much stress in life.”

As a factory supervisor, Mike makes about 9,000 yuan a month, or $1,260. His mortgage is 6,000 yuan, or two-thirds of his monthly income. After paying for all necessities, he could hardly save anything, he said. And he still needs to save for a car. Even though his girlfriend, unlike many Chinese women, doesn’t require Mike to have a car and an apartment to marry, he considers it “a man’s obligation” to achieve those before marriage.

Mike’s hope is to have some savings to take care of his parents, at least to cover their medical expenses when they get older. He wants a child but would rather wait until he’s financially able to provide the baby with a good life. As to having more than one child now that the one-child policy has ended, Mike said “no” without hesitation. “I wouldn’t be able to afford that!”

When asked about Chinese state media reports that the economy has been steadily recovering, Mike replied, “That’s propaganda! It’s exactly the opposite of how we feel among the people.”

“As far as my life goes, I’m in a recession,” he added.

Read more here…

A conveyor belt of atmospheric river storms has refilled a once-dormant California lake, putting some of the nation’s most important farmland at risk as it is now underwater. 

Central California’s Tulare Lake is refilled for the first time in four decades. Jeffrey Mount, a senior fellow at the Water Policy Center of the Public Policy Institute of California, told NBC News it could take at least a year for the water in the lakebed to evaporate.

“We are still going to have a Tulare Lake next year,” Mount said. 

An onslaught of snow and rain from dozens of storms that battered California early this year has caused upwards of $5 billion in damage between December 2022 and March 2023, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

As cropland remains underwater, there are increasing risks of significant agricultural losses.

Tulare Lake, San Joaquin Valley, CA…Reformed and refilled after this year’s major rains. Probably a once-in-a-lifetime event as the California dam system normally contains the snowmelt: but not this year. pic.twitter.com/USqvtrreo3

— TheEvan5 (@TEvan12447) July 14, 2023

NASA’s Aqua satellite shows the progression of flooding in the Tulare Lake basin over the last several months. 

“Flooding in the lakebed is likely to continue into 2024, which will affect residents and farmers in the area, as well as some of the most productive cropland in the Central Valley. The lakebed contains farms that produced cotton, tomatoes, dairy, safflower, pistachios, wheat, and almonds,” the space agency said. 

United States Department of Agriculture meteorologist Brad Rippey told Bussiness Insider earlier this month, “While it’s unclear how deep Tulare Lake is now, if it’s similar to its former average depth of about 30 feet, that would translate to more than one trillion gallons of water that have flooded the region so far this year.” 

The bad news is that a lot of the nation’s produce is sourced from the Tulare Lake Basin. Any disruption to supply will mean higher produce prices. 

Authored by Ryan Morgan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Republicans on the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government are moving ahead with plans to hear testimony from Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, after House Democrats and their supporters raised accusations Mr. Kennedy had made anti-Semitic remarks.

At a July 11 campaign event, Mr. Kennedy described research indicating that the genetic structure of SARS‑CoV‑2 had differing impacts on individuals of different races and ethnicities, including a lesser impact on ethnic Chinese and Ashkenazi Jews. Mr. Kennedy also discussed how bioweapons could potentially be designed with the intent to harm certain ethnic groups over others. The New York Post published an article based on Mr. Kennedy’s remarks, with the headline “RFK Jr. says COVID may have been ‘ethnically targeted’ to spare Jews.”

Mr. Kennedy has insisted he was not claiming SARS‑CoV‑2 was deliberately modified to “spare Jews,” as the New York Post put it. The controversy over his remarks comes as he’s scheduled to testify before the House Government Weaponization Subcommittee on July 20, where he will discuss government collusion with big tech companies to censor free speech.

The Congressional Integrity Project (CIP), an activist group with the stated goal of defending President Joe Biden and Democrats against Republican congressional investigations, sent a letter (pdf) to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Sunday, accusing him and other House Republicans of an “antisemitic pattern” of behavior and calling for them to disinvite Mr. Kennedy. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) also issued a statement on Sunday, similarly accusing Mr. Kennedy of repeating a “vile antisemitic trope” and calling for his remarks to be “uniformly condemned.” Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.), who sit on the House Government Weaponization Subcommittee, also spoke out against Mr. Kennedy’s remarks.

Mr. Jordan rebuffed the Democratic pressure campaign to disinvite Mr. Kennedy on Monday. The Republican lawmaker distanced himself from Mr. Kennedy’s remarks about COVID-19 but insisted the House Government Weaponization Subcommittee would still have him on to talk about coordinated efforts between government offices and social media companies to throttle speech.

“I totally disagree with what he said, but he’s a Democrat. I disagree with other things he said, too. But we’re having him because of censorship,” Mr. Jordan told Politico on Monday.

NTD News reached out to Mr. Jordan for additional comment but did not receive a response by the time this article was published.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), similarly distanced himself from Mr. Kennedy’s remarks, but pushed back on the calls to disinvite the Democratic presidential candidate.

Mr. McCarthy said, “I disagree with everything [Mr. Kennedy] said,” but contended that the hearing’s focus is censorship. “I don’t think censoring somebody is actually the answer here.”

What RFK Jr. Said

In a video clip captured at his July 11 campaign event, Mr. Kennedy said with “COVID-19, there’s an argument that it is ethnically targeted.”

“COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately,” he added before describing how different ethnic groups have differences in the structure of their ACE2 receptors, which are the receptors that bind with SARS‑CoV‑2 and lead to COVID-19 infections.

“COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese,” Mr. Kennedy said. “We don’t know whether it was deliberately targeted or not but there are papers out there that show the racial or ethnic differential and impact of that. We do know that the Chinese are spending hundreds of millions of dollars developing ethnic bioweapons and we [the United States] are developing ethnic bioweapons.”

In his article titled “RFK Jr. says COVID may have been ‘ethnically targeted’ to spare Jews,” New York Post wrote that Mr. Kennedy’s remark “echoes well-worn anti-Semitic literature blaming Jews for the emergence and spread of coronavirus which began circulating online shortly after the pandemic broke out, according to The Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at the University of Tel Aviv’s 2021 Antisemitism Worldwide Report.”

Mr. Kennedy pushed back on the New York Post’s characterization of his comments in a July 15 tweet, saying the Post’s story is mistaken.

“I have never, ever suggested that the COVID-19 virus was targeted to spare Jews. I accurately pointed out—during an off-the-record conversation—that the U.S. and other governments are developing ethnically targeted bioweapons and that a 2021 study of the COVID-19 virus shows that COVID-19 appears to disproportionately affect certain races since the furin cleave docking site is most compatible with Blacks and Caucasians and least compatible with ethnic Chinese, Finns, and Ashkenazi Jews,” Mr. Kennedy wrote. “In that sense, it serves as a kind of proof of concept for ethnically targeted bioweapons. I do not believe and never implied that the ethnic effect was deliberately engineered.”

Mr. Kennedy shared a link to the 2021 study he was describing, which was published on the National Institutes of Health’s PubMed site.

Kennedy Has Sued Biden Over Censorship

While Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Biden are both running as Democrats, they’ve demonstrated differing views on a number of issues, including COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccine mandates and the war in Ukraine.

Mr. Kennedy founded the non-profit organization Children’s Health Defense (CHD), which has been critical of COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine mandates. Mr. Kennedy and CHD filed a federal lawsuit in March accusing the Biden administration of working with big tech companies to induce those companies to censor Mr. Kennedy’s constitutionally-protected speech.

A federal judge just issued a preliminary injunction against the Biden administration in a similar case, finding that a number of plaintiffs were “likely to succeed on the merits in establishing that the Government has used its power to silence the opposition.” That case, which was brought by Republican attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri, described an instance in January of 2021 in which a White House official flagged a tweet by Mr. Kennedy and sent an email to Twitter officials stating, “Hey folks-Wanted to flag the below tweet and am wondering if we can get moving on the process of having it removed ASAP.”

Last week, the Biden administration won an appeal from a three-judge panel on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, staying the lower court’s preliminary injunction while the lawsuit proceeds. The two-page appeals court decision did not specify the reasoning for staying the lower court’s injunction. The three judges on the panel were Circuit Judge Carl E. Stewart, an appointee of President Bill Clinton; Circuit Judge James Earl Graves Jr., an appointee of President Barack Obama; and Circuit Judge Andrew Stephen Oldham, an appointee of President Donald Trump.

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

Senator Rand Paul is determined to take down Anthony Fauci, with his latest salvo against the former NIH head coming in the form of confirming that Fauci has a government funded security detail including the use of limousines, despite the fact that he is supposedly retired with vast personal wealth.

Appearing on Jesse Watters’ show Monday, Paul explained how shady Fauci’s taxpayer reimbursed perks are.

“HHS (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) actually came back to us and said they haven’t been paying for it since January. But then we discovered that Fox did a Freedom of Information Act and a judge forced them to say that, well, while HHS wasn’t directly funding it, the U.S. Marshals were funding it,” Paul noted.

Joining @JesseBWatters on @FoxNews tonight to discuss how your tax dollars are STILL being spent on Fauci! https://t.co/YkOMNtpjWU

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 17, 2023

Paul continued, “We asked the government, ‘are you funding his limo, and driver, and security detail,’ and they say, ‘Oh, we’re not doing it, but oh, somebody else is doing it, and we’re reimbursing them?’”

“It’s a terrible example of the government lying to its representatives and to the people. But also, why is a retired guy, the only retired official I know of that gets this kind of treatment is a former president,” Paul continued, urging “I have no idea why this bureaucrat still has a limo driver security detail.”

“He’s a rich man. His wealth increased by 30% during the pandemic,” Paul pointed out, also pondering whether Fauci has access to pro bono legal representation in retirement, asserting that he will need it soon.

Watch:

Paul has vowed to never stop pushing to expose the reality of COVID’s origin and funding.

Last week’s release of an email in which Fauci confirms that research in Wuhan was gain-of-function adds to an email where his assistants label it GoF as well. Likely nothing more conclusive than catching a liar lying with his own words!

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 18, 2023

I will continue to exhaust every option I possibly can to get answers on COVID origins and funding.https://t.co/tLYMLTgkhK

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 17, 2023

Most importantly, we deserve answers and accountability because we don’t have enough of either. More coming soon…

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 17, 2023

Virologist and Fauci crony, Kristian Andersen, in public argued that COVID came from nature but in private emails said the opposite:

“The main issue is that accidental escape is in fact highly likely–it’s not some fringe theory.”

Millions died and they all lied.…

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 14, 2023

👀 In case you needed any more proof Fauci orchestrated a coverup…

Now ask yourself why… https://t.co/702YL7Lppz

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 13, 2023

*  * *

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In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. We need you to sign up for our free newsletter here. Support our sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown.

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Former Tesla executive JB Straubel’s battery recycling company is about to fetch a $5 billion valuation during its latest round of funding, according to a new report from FT. From there, the company plans on opening its first major facility in Nevada.

Redwood Materials, founded in 2017, has the goal of acting as the missing link in the battery sustainability cycle. By reusing materials used in the batteries that are now ubiquitous in almost all major consumer products, including EVs, the company looks to reduce the need for mineral mining.

The Epoch Times wrote back in 2022 that the current uptick in EV adoption and increased demand for lithium batteries presents a significant environmental challenge.

“As demand for lithium increases and production is tapped from deeper rock mines and brines, the challenges of mitigating environmental risk will increase.”

We also wrote about the “subhuman” and “appalling” cobalt mining that takes place in the Congo to mine battery minerals. Siddharth Kara, who is a Harvard visiting professor and also the author of “Cobalt Red: How The Blood of The Congo Powers Our Lives” took to The Joe Rogan Podcast in late 2022 with comments.

“I’ve never seen [a cobalt mine that did not rely on child labor or slavery] and I’ve been to almost all the major industrial cobalt mines,” he told Rogan. 

Straubel’s company has backers that include T Rowe Price, Baillie Gifford and Fidelity already. Redwood is looking to close on $700 million in its latest round of financing. It previously closed on $700 million in financing at a $3.7 billion valuation in 2021, the report says. It has also secured $2 billion in loans from the US Department of Energy.

Redwood plans for its plant to support the production of more than 1 million vehicles a year. The timing could not be better: President Joe Biden is working to make half of all new vehicles sold electric by 2030. 

It plans for a second plant on 600 acres near Charleston, South Carolina, the report adds. 

Straubel helped co-found Tesla in 2003 and stayed on with CEO Elon Musk for over 15 years. His presence became a staple at all Tesla events and most Tesla conference calls. He has since joined Tesla’s Board of Directors. 

Authored by Elijah Cohen via TheMindUnleashed.com,

AI writing detectors are flagging the U.S. Constitution, one of America’s most significant legal documents, as a piece of AI-generated text. This intriguing controversy raises many questions, most importantly: How could a document, written centuries before the advent of AI, be mistaken as AI-generated?

AI writing detectors, such as ChatGPT, are designed to identify text produced by AI models. When these detectors analyze the U.S. Constitution, they often conclude that it was likely written by an AI.

This is, of course, impossible unless James Madison, one of the key drafters of the Constitution, had access to time travel and chatGPT. So, what is the reason behind these false positives?

The use of AI writing tools, particularly generative AI like ChatGPT, has stirred up a whirlwind in the educational sector. There’s a growing concern that these tools could disrupt traditional teaching methods, particularly the use of essays to assess a student’s understanding of a topic. In response, educators are turning to AI writing detectors, such as GPTZero, ZeroGPT, and OpenAI’s Text Classifier, in an attempt to maintain the status quo. However, these tools have proven to be unreliable due to their propensity for false positives.

For instance, when GPTZero is fed a section of the U.S. Constitution, it declares that the text is “likely to be written entirely by AI.” Similar results have been observed with other AI detectors, leading to a wave of confusion and humor about the possibility of the founding fathers being robots. Even religious texts, like sections from The Bible, have been flagged as AI-generated.

To comprehend why these tools make such glaring errors, we need to delve into the underlying principles of AI detection. AI writing detectors use AI models that have been trained on a vast body of text, along with a set of rules to determine if the writing is human or AI-generated. For example, GPTZero uses a neural network trained on a diverse corpus of human-written and AI-generated text. It then uses properties like “perplexity” and “burstiness” to evaluate the text.

Perplexity, in the context of machine learning, measures how much a piece of text deviates from what an AI model has learned during its training. The idea is that AI models like ChatGPT, when generating text, will naturally gravitate towards what they know best, which comes from their training data. The closer the output is to the training data, the lower the perplexity rating. However, humans can also write with low perplexity, especially when imitating a formal style used in law or certain types of academic writing.

In other words, just because something sounds generic, doesn’t mean it comes from AI, and that seems to be how these programs are judging things.

This phenomenon underscores the limitations of AI writing detectors and the need for a more reliable solution, especially in the educational sector.

Diving deeper into the topic of AI-generated writing, we find that it has gained popularity due to advancements in machine learning models like GPT-4. These models can generate human-like text, making them useful in various fields, from content creation to customer service. However, this has also raised concerns about authenticity and originality, especially in academia, where the use of AI-generated writing could be considered plagiarism.

The rise of AI-generated writing has also led to the development of AI writing detectors. These tools aim to distinguish between human and AI-generated text, a task that is becoming increasingly challenging due to the sophistication of modern AI models. However, as we’ve seen with the U.S. Constitution example, these tools often produce false positives.

The development of more accurate AI writing detectors is crucial. These tools need to consider the nuances of human writing, including style, tone, and context. They also need to be continually updated to keep pace with advancements in AI writing technology.

In conclusion, while AI-generated writing presents exciting opportunities, it also poses challenges. The development of reliable AI writing detectors is a critical step towards addressing these challenges and ensuring the integrity of written content in the digital age.

An 18-year-old female military recruit was forced to shower with, and sleep in between, transgender biological males under the Biden administration’s policies, placing her in an “extremely uncomfortable position,” Fox News reports.

The incident was highlighted on Tuesday during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, after which Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) told the outlet that the woman is afraid to speak out out of concern for her career, and that her options were to basically keep quiet about it, or resign from her early-career position.

“She could have basically resigned or stepped away,” said Rounds, adding “She could have started over again. But nonetheless, it was an extremely uncomfortable position. And I think this is one of the reasons why we’re not meeting our recruitment goals now.”

According to Rounds, the military recruit, 18, is complaining about being forced to sleep in between “two individuals who were supposedly changing from male to female.” The girl also has to shower with the individuals and reported significant distress about the matter. The individuals housed with the 18-year-old had initiated chemical interventions to change genders, but without having reassignment surgery, their genitalia were fully intact. -Fox News

Rounds heard about the incident from the Attorney General for the South Dakota National Guard.

“He had contacted our office very concerned about the information he had received from the recruit,” said Rounds. “The respect that this young recruit should have received and the privacy that she should have had, she was being deprived of.”

“This seems to be a direct correlation between when the President of the United States issued the executive order making these changes and directing the Department of Defense to integrate… individuals who were transgender and how they should be perceived within the military,” Rounds continued, adding “Most of the focus [under the Biden administration] is on the transgender individuals, not on the individuals who are working with them.”

.@PhilipWegmann: The WH “has been critical of Sen. Tuberville w/his holds on military promotions…[W]hy is the new DoD policy on abortion critical to military readiness?”

Kirby says female and “transgender individuals” “have every right” to be “take[n] care of” pic.twitter.com/TrwNGYmJyS

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 17, 2023

In a statement to Fox News Digital, the Pentagon said: “DoD policy is that all Service members must be treated with dignity and respect. We would encourage any troop who’s feeling uncomfortable or has concerns about privacy in shared spaces to work through their chain of command. Commanders may employ reasonable accommodations to respect the privacy interests of Service members.”

President Biden reversed the Trump-era ban on transgender people serving in the military when he first took office. The Biden administration, at the time, stressed that the U.S. military “thrives” when it is composed of diverse Americans who can “meet the rigorous standards for military service,” and added that “an inclusive military strengthens our national security.”

“President Biden believes that gender identity should not be a bar to military service, and that America’s strength is found in its diversity,” the White House said. “This question of how to enable all qualified Americans to serve in the military is easily answered by recognizing our core values.” -Fox News

According to the Daily Caller, the DoD requires transgender service members to use whichever bathroom or shower facilities align with their preferred gender, regardless of biological sex.

Via The Cradle,

US officials said a Russian fighter jet flew close to a US reconnaissance plane over Syria, forcing it to fly erratically and endangering the lives of the four American crew members, Politico reported on Tuesday.

The US-based news outlet quoted US officials as saying that the latest incident, which occurred on Sunday was “a significant escalation in a series of confrontations between US and Russian aircraft in Syria in recent weeks,” adding that “the interception of the Russian Su-35 aircraft impeded the ability of the American crew to safely operate their MC-12 aircraft.” US officials described the incident as “a new level of unsafe behavior that could lead to an accident or loss of life.”

The officials claimed the MC-12, a twin-engine turboprop aircraft was conducting surveillance to support operations against ISIS in Syria.

However, Moscow has accused US forces in Syria of supporting ISIS to maintain leverage against the Syrian government, which Washington sought to topple through covert support for extremist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda starting in 2011. 

US forces have established multiple bases and occupy large swathes of northeast Syria since partnering with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), in late 2015. This allows the US to control much of Syria’s energy and wheat-producing regions to hinder Damascus’ efforts to rebuild the country following over a decade of war.

US forces regularly loot Syrian oil, transporting it in large tanker convoys across the border to US bases in Iraq for further sale through Turkey.

The US partnership with the SDF came in response to the Russian air force’s intervention in the war in September 2015, which prevented the fall of Damascus to US, UK, Turkish, and Gulf-backed extremist groups, including the Nusra Front and ISIS. 

As a result, both US and Russian warplanes are active over Syria’s skies, requiring deconfliction mechanisms to avoid direct confrontations between the two nuclear-armed powers.

The Pentagon is sending high-end F-35 fighter jets and a Navy destroyer to the Middle East to fend off increasingly aggressive maneuvers by Russian pilots over #Syria and to defend commercial shipping from a spate of recent attacks by #Iran.https://t.co/72UBNYlLCb

— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) July 17, 2023

In 2016, US military officials ordered the bombing of Syrian army soldiers battling ISIS near Deir Ezzor city, while ignoring Russian calls on the designated deconfliction line. The US attack killed 100 Syrian soldiers while allowing ISIS to gain a strategic position in Deir Ezzor.

As Al-Mayadeen notes, Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously stressed “the need for the United States to withdraw its forces from Syria and stop plundering the wealth of the Syrian people.”

According to US officials, Russian and Iranian forces in Syria have been coordinating to eventually force Washington’s troops to withdraw from the country.

“There’s a confluence of interests between those three groups, the Iranians, the Russians, and the Syrians. I see evidence of operational-level planning between mid-level Quds Force leadership that’s operating in Syria [and] Russian forces that are operating in Syria,” the anonymous official told Al-Monitor.

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Once Covid-relief money runs out huge MTA fare increases are in store. Blame the unions…

The Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) Analysis of the New York MTA’s Operating Budget shows a looming shortfall. That forecast does not include a union contract up for renewal.

In 2029, CBC projects the MTA will face a budget gap exceeding $900 million, once the benefit of federal COVID-related is exhausted. The MTA has wisely spread out the benefit of federal pandemic aid through 2028. Furthermore, after a short-term infusion of revenues from casino license fees, the recurring tax revenue is likely to be $300 million lower after the three licenses are issued.

The cost of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 collective bargaining agreement, extended across the MTA, exceeds budgeted raises by $330 million annually. CBC estimates that the cost of the TWU deal would exceed the budget by approximately $765 million in the first three years of the contract. Baseline costs will increase by $330 million annually thereafter.

To stabilize finances, the MTA should implement one-person train operation (OPTO) on subways and proof of payment on commuter rail, industry standard practices that would increase efficiency.

New York City Transit (NYCT) predominately uses two-person train operation, with an operator and a conductor on each train, while OPTO is standard operating practice in most other large systems, including Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.

While ridership is down overall, changes vary across stations; an analysis by the State Comptroller found that some stations seeing higher levels than pre-pandemic, while others are significantly lower. Despite these shifts, the MTA has not yet made major service adjustments to either reduce or redistribute service to increase efficiency and provide high-quality, reliable service. In fact, a modest effort to align service with current demand was challenged and halted by TWU.

Contractual work rules and collectively bargained agreements should not stand in the way of adjusting transit service to align with ridership trends and evolving needs. The TWU and MTA should negotiate changes that provide the flexibility and adaptability needed to deliver cost-effective service levels aligned with transit rider needs.

Public Unions Should Not Exist

Public unions should not exist. Even FDR recognized that.

For discussion, please see Public Unions Have No Business Existing: Even FDR Admitted That

All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations. The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress. Accordingly, administrative officials and employees alike are governed and guided, and in many instances restricted, by laws which establish policies, procedures, or rules in personnel matters.

Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of Government employees. Upon employees in the Federal service rests the obligation to serve the whole people, whose interests and welfare require orderliness and continuity in the conduct of Government activities. This obligation is paramount. Since their own services have to do with the functioning of the Government, a strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable. It is, therefore, with a feeling of gratification that I have noted in the constitution of the National Federation of Federal Employees the provision that “under no circumstances shall this Federation engage in or support strikes against the United States Government.”

Oakland Teachers Strike in 5th Day Over Climate Justice, Homeless Housing, Reparations

On May 10, I noted Oakland Teachers Strike in 5th Day Over Climate Justice, Homeless Housing, Reparations

Hoot of the Day: The UAW Demands a “Just Transition” to Electric Vehicles

On May 15, I noted Hoot of the Day: The UAW Demands a “Just Transition” to Electric Vehicles

The latter example is at least private union. Unlike public unions, private unions can drive a company to bankruptcy. GM is an excellent example. The airlines are another.

But no one negotiates the other side of public unions. Corrupt politicians get in bed with corrupt union leaders.

It is nearly impossible to get rid of a bad teacher, even a child molester unless they are convicted criminally. The same applies to corrupt police officers.

FDR had it correct: All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service.

Nonetheless here we are by executive order 10988, later expanded across the board.

Executive Order 10988 is a United States presidential executive order issued by President John F. Kennedy on January 17, 1962 that granted federal employees the right to collective bargaining.

Biden is cheerleading unions and more price inflation every step of the way.

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Authored by Caden Pearsen via The Epoch Times,

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has threatened to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress if the bureau does not comply with two subpoenas related to its alleged targeting of concerned parents and Catholics.

In his letter to Mr. Wray on July 17, Mr. Jordan highlighted the FBI’s “wholly inadequate” response to the subpoenas, which he believed hindered the committee’s oversight efforts.

“Of particular interest to the Committee is the FBI’s weaponization of its law-enforcement powers against Americans who exercise their First Amendment rights,” Mr. Jordan wrote (pdf).

The first subpoena, issued on Feb. 3, requested documents and information related to the “FBI’s targeting of concerned parents who speak out at school board meetings.”

The second subpoena, issued on April 10, was about the “FBI’s profiling of traditional Catholics as domestic extremists.”

“To date, the FBI’s compliance with these subpoenas has been wholly inadequate and has materially impeded the Committee’s oversight efforts,” Mr. Jordan wrote.

“After several accommodations, months of persistent outreach by the Committee, and attempts to negotiate and work with the FBI in good faith, we write to notify you that if the FBI does not improve its compliance substantially, the Committee will take action—such as the initiation of contempt of Congress proceedings—to obtain compliance with these subpoenas.”

The deadline for the FBI to provide the requested documents is set for July 25 at 12 p.m.

A man waits in line while holding a sign with parents gathered to express their concerns over mandatory vaccine mandates for their children at the Placentia Yorba Linda Unified School District building in Placentia, Calif., on Oct. 12, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The committee has already received some documents from the FBI, but believes that there are additional materials still not provided.

“The FBI’s productions to date have not included material the Committee knows is, or has reason to believe may be, in the FBI’s possession and that is responsive to the subpoena,” Mr. Jordan wrote.

One specific record the committee wants is an email that might shed light on the connection between the National School Boards Association’s (NSBA’s) 2021 letter to President Joe Biden and the FBI’s focus on alleged threats made by vocal parents at school board meetings.

“America’s public schools and its education leaders are under an immediate threat,” the NSBA wrote in the 2021 letter to Mr. Biden. The letter asked for federal law enforcement support, as school board members faced parents expressing concerns about COVID-19 masking and the teaching of critical race theory.

The association later apologized for the letter.

FBI Did Not ‘Sufficiently Comply’

The subpoenas were initially issued in response to a memo from Attorney General Merrick Garland and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, addressing an alleged increase in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff.

According to Mr. Jordan, the FBI did not “sufficiently comply on a voluntary basis,” having only turned over four redacted pages of school board-related documents submitted by the initial March 1 deadline.

In a cover letter signed by Acting Assistant Director of Congressional Affairs Christopher Dunham, it was stated that the response included information that the FBI managed to prepare within the time since receiving the subpoena on Feb. 3, following the accommodation process.

Despite the committee’s willingness to accept documents on a rolling basis, the FBI’s response has been deemed underwhelming. Mr. Jordan alleges that the FBI’s handling of the subpoenas undermines the bureau’s commitment to protect First Amendment rights and accountability.

Furthermore, the FBI’s refusal to provide names of employees involved in the memo drafting, reviewing, approving, or disseminating process raised concerns about religious liberties protection, Mr. Jordan wrote.

A similar tactic was used in May when House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) threatened to hold Mr. Wray in contempt when attempting to obtain an unclassified file related to Biden’s alleged bribe from a Ukrainian energy executive. Ultimately, Mr. Wray agreed to share a redacted version of the information with Oversight Committee members.

The Epoch Times contact the FBI for comment.